The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I know I need to be more timely I know. Well on to the review. First of all I must say I LOVE Percy Jackson. He is so sarcastically hilarious. This series is so entertaining. It is one of the best series out there.

Percy Jackson is dyslexic and has ADHD. He gets kicked out of every school he can get into. Things happen to him all the time that he cannot explain. He doesn't know what he is yet but he's about to find out. He's at a museum on a school field trip with fellow screw ups. Mr. Brunner, his Latin teacher, is talking about Greek Mythology. He is singled out to answer a question. He is always singled out he feels by Mr. Brunner. It's like he is expected to know more with all of his problems. He actually does try with Mr. Brunner because he is his favorite teacher. He randomly gears up in armor and challenges his students to answer questions. He is a pretty cool teacher.

Later on him and his friend Grover are eating lunch. Grover is being teased and has food being thrown at him by Nancy Bobofit. (I forgot about her.) She's the classic bully. Percy is a fighter. He gets in fights all the time and wouldn't mind giving Nancy a piece of his mind but, he is on probation. Then he just can't help it. He gets so angry that one second Nancy is in front of him sneering at him and the other second she's in the fountain screaming that he had pushed her. That's when Mrs. Dodds seizes her chance to punish Percy. She hates Percy and just adores Nancy. But she has a sinister smile on her face now like she is about to do more than give him a detention. She ends up transforming into a Fury. Basically it's like a bird with a face. Well that's what I think in my head. Here's the description:

She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

Mr. Brunner comes in and tosses him a pen. No ordinary pen. A pen that turns into a sword. The sword that you see on the cover. It's explained later that it's named Riptide and it was a present from Poseidon. He slices Mrs. Dodds and she explodes into a yellow powder. Then the world turnes against him. No one knew who Mrs. Dodds was well except for Grover. He didn't look convincing enough when he said he didn't know her. Events take place and then he goes back home. He lives with his Mom and Smelly Gabe. Gabe is his stepfather. He is a loser and he doesn't know why someone like his mother would be with him. His mother is the sweetest person ever. She doesn't yell and she cares so much about Percy. She works at a candy store too. Awesome benefits! Her and Percy have this thing with blue food. Her and Gabe had an argument about if they were or weren't blue food. Now Percy's mom goes out of her way to find blue food and serve it. They get ready for a trip to his favorite place in the world. It's the beach where her mother met his dad. Grover comes and before they know it they are running for there lives. From what? A Minotaur. The Minotaur "kills" his mother and he "kills" the Minotaur. He takes it's horn as a spoils of war. That's the horn you see on the cover.

In camp he meets Annabeth Chase who keeps asking about the Summer Solstice which he knows nothing about. Grover turns out to be a Satyr. Mr. Brunner is actually Chiron, the trainer of heroes. He meets the Camp Director Mr. D who is Dionysus the god of wine. His father sent him there as punishment for disobeying him. His father is Zeus. He's not allowed to have alcohol and he doesn't like kids so he is extremely grumpy. He constantly gets Percy's name wrong. He knows it though. He's just messing with him. Here's a particularly entertaining exchange so you can get the sense of how he is:

Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in. "Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing.

Everyone is staring at him. He did just "kill" the Minotaur. Well, he didn't really. The monsters can come back. In the actual Mythical stories Perseus which is his name kills the Minotaur. So everyone thinks he could be one of "The Big Three" which are Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. He could be one of their kids but that would spell trouble. They all made a promise that they wouldn't have kids anymore after World War II because they were too powerful. Zeus broke that promise. His daughter Thalia got made into a tree because of it. Weird I know. Now Poseidon ends up claiming Percy. He needs him because he is being accused of taking the Master Bolt. Zeus's Master Bolt. Nature is fighting with each other and utter chaos will occur if Percy doesn't get the bolt back. Everything points to Hades. He would gain the most if they fought. More territory. So he is headed to Las Vegas the entrance to the Underworld. I should explain two things first one that on the Empire State Building's 600th floor is Mount Olympus. The palace moves wherever it is most powerful so that's why it is in America now. Two he sees an oracle before this. He takes Annabeth and Grover with him to stop a war from going on. He meets other gods and monsters, has some crazy dreams, discovers some sinister plots, and has his the prophecy fulfilled. Oh yeah. There's another one. Then Percy is planning to save his mother from the Underworld while he's there.

You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

You shall be betrayed by one who calls you friend.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

I love how they do mention God. He says the gods are less complicated than God. I actually wondered about that. It is just a story but still I really like how he added that in there. Again this series is one of the best. It's the first so I love it the most out of all of them. Well.. I love other parts of the series. It just is a fantastic series! Hope you liked the review! (: